CAA Today Recruiting Perspectives; Rhode Island & Towson Players

By Terence Thomas, CAA Today Columnist.

Since August 2009, I’ve conducted head coach and player interviews regarding the recruitment process. The next several columns will feature the responses from those interviews. In this column, I will share with you the player interviews from Rhode Island and Towson that were taken at M&T Bank stadium in Baltimore at the CAA Media Event.

Beginning with Rhode Island the following are the profiles of the players interviewed:

Willie McGinnis (right), a junior, is a defensive tackle, from Norwich, N.Y., majoring in Communications.
Jarrod Williams (left), a senior, is a cornerback, from Glenn Mills, Pa., majoring in Human Development and Families.



TT: Coming out of high school, what was most important to you during the recruitment process?
WM: The thing that was important to me was a good fit. Where would I feel most comfortable. On a recruiting trip, I looked at the players a lot to see if I would fit in with them. Also, the college and university had to have what I wanted to major in.

JW: Basically, the same thing as Willie, where would I be most comfortable living at, what were the academics like and what my parents thought.

TT: Did you take more than one recruiting visit?

JW: Yes, I went to Pittsburgh and Penn State.

WM: No, I did not take any other recruiting visits.

TT: How important to you was it to go on those recruiting visits?

JW: It was big. I really didn’t know what was going on. It was a whirlwind. My parents were with me to help guide me through it. Basically, I was just waiting for scholarships to come in.

WM: I only went to Rhode Island. Going on other recruiting visits is something that I missed out on.

TT: What was the deciding factor that made you pick Rhode Island?

WM: I felt most comfortable at Rhode Island. I got along with the guys there and the coaches were good. The atmosphere around campus was something that I wanted to be around.

JW: Rhode Island had a city around it, the coaches were great, the players that I met were great, and they treated me real good. The school was great, not too big, and not too small.

TT: What words of wisdom would you pass along to the next class of high school seniors going through the recruitment process?

WM: Find a place where you will feel comfortable. It’s not all about the coaches. You have to be comfortable with the coaches, too, but coaches come and go throughout your career. Coaches have come and gone throughout our career here at Rhode Island. So go to a place that you feel most comfortable, a place that you feel you’ll be able to fit in for the next four years. Go to as many recruiting visits that you can. Have as much fun as you can, and it will be an easier selection to make when you have to narrow it down.

JW: Find somewhere that you honestly want to go to and you feel is the best fit for you, even if you want to play right away or if you want to take time and red-shirt.

TT: Regarding the 2010 Rhode Island Rams, what’s the biggest difference between this year and last year?

WM: The only difference I see is that the competition is about the same. There are great teams in the CAA. Everybody is doing their part to improve, and we just have to improve ourselves.

JW: We have more depth this year, and more depth than we’ve had since I was a freshman. So, I feel that’s a big impact over last year as we had a lot of guys get hurt last season. Because of the injuries, some of our guys had to switch positions in the middle of the season.

TT: Is Rhode Island doing anything different on defense this year?

WM: I’m not sure. We’ll be getting our defensive schemes pretty soon. I’m sure we’ll tweak some things here and there, but I think it will be pretty much the same.

JW: I played Safety last year, this year I’m playing corner. I think we moved a lot of people around with the defense we had, and I think it fits everybody in the right way.

TT: Anything you want to say to the rest of the world about your team?

WM: Look out for the Rhody Rams!

TOWSON PLAYERS

Yaky Ibia (right), a senior defensive tackle from Nigeria, his family now resides in Reston, Va., is majoring in Actuarial Science.
Hakeem Moore (left), a senior slot receiver, from Alexandria, Va., is majoring in Economics in the School of Business.



TT: Coming out of high school what was most important to you during the recruitment process?

YI: My parents stressed to me the importance on focusing on academics when picking a good school. I wasn’t sure if I was going to major in math or computer science. They wanted me to pick a school that had a good fit for either major and not just for football.

HM: For me, it was more the distance from my mom and my family. Also, my mom stressed academics.

TT: Did you take any recruiting visits?
YI: I only took one visit and that was to Towson. I committed shortly after that visit.

HM: Yes, I went on a recruiting visit to Towson in January 2006 and committed shortly thereafter. I also went to JMU, and I liked it, but I didn’t feel the same way about them that I did for Towson. A lot of my friends and a lot of people from my high school went to JMU. It was a tough decision, one that I wondered for a long time would it be the right one, but I’m glad I chose Towson.

TT: Were there other schools interested in you?

YI: Yes, there were other schools interested in me. Delaware was the only school to actually offer me a scholarship besides Towson.

HM: Yes, JMU, Delaware, a couple of DIII schools, but Towson showed me the most love. They always called me, tried to see how I was doing, or they sent me a letter saying it was nice of me to come up there, they hoped I had a great time. They always kept in contact with me, and the other schools didn’t do that. I felt that they really wanted me.

TT: What was the deciding factor that made you pick Towson?

YI: I felt that Towson was a good fit. They have a real good math program which is what I’m in right now. That’s probably the main deciding factor for me to pick this school. It was really only between Delaware and Towson, and I felt my parents shouldn’t have to pay for me to go to college after they’ve done so much for me throughout my life. That’s why I chose Towson.

HM: Towson had a great business program, and I want to try and get my masters in business, along with being close to my family and being able to see them while I’m here at Towson, and they were able to come to my games. Also, I wanted to help change the program. The other schools were already champions and already had winning seasons. Towson had been in a downfall, and they hadn’t been in the playoffs in a while. I felt like I wanted to come in and make a difference. That way people would remember me, like “he came here and made a difference and made a change in the program.”

TT: What words of wisdom would you pass along to the next class of high school seniors going through the recruitment process?

HM: When you think about what it is you want, consider how you will feel three or four years down the road. How will this university impact you as a person or as a man or woman? When you sign that contract for scholarship or nonscholarship ... if you’re on a football team or in athletics, they own you. That’s what it really comes down to and you have to realize, can I really be here for the next four years of my life? A lot of people overlook that. They think about the parties and the city, but it’s not even about that. It’s about your education. I try to tell people to think about how the university will bring out your personality and help develop you.

YI: I would say that there’s life after football. So make sure, like Hakeem was saying that the school fits you. Because you may go to a school that has a great football program, and you’re playing football there and you like the football aspect of it, but you may hate the campus lifestyle, you may hate some of your professors, and stuff like that. The school has to fit you, so when you take a visit, make sure you take a look at as many things as possible. Go visit a classroom, go visit the dining hall. See if you like it and the food that they’re offering. Walk around campus, check what the temperature is. Some people like hot weather, some people like cold weather. You might not want to go up north, or down south.

TT: Regarding the 2010 Towson Tigers, what’s the biggest difference between this year and last year?

YI: The acclimation process. Coming in with a new head coach and a whole new coaching staff, pretty much, we had to get used to the tendencies, and what people expect of us, of each coach individually and the coaching staff as a whole. So knowing what they expect, and the high standard that they’re going to hold you too during practice, during games, and off the field. That’s one thing that Coach Ambrose stresses is to represent Towson in the best way possible. We should be a lot more competitive because we’ve had a year to become acclimated to the game plan. We had a lot of young guys last year, and now that they’ve got that game experience, they can go out on the field a second time and be better in their roles.

HM: I have to agree with Yaky, the acclimation process is going to be different. As a unit, as a squad, we know what’s expected from us, what the different coaches expect from us, and what our team goal is as a unit. More bonding, we’re all after the same goal. As a unit, we’re going to be more hungry. We want to show the CAA that we deserve to be in this conference. We want people to respect us. We haven’t gained that respect in the three or four years that I’ve been here. People come into our stadium into our home turf, and say, “ah, we’re playing Towson” with disdain in their voices. This year, we’re coming back hard. I’m just excited to even talk about it, because I’ve seen our team grow. We grew in the last year and people don’t realize what we've been through. Our biggest change is going to be effort, hungriness, to go get it, to want to win. That’s what I feel like we have this year.

TT: What about the defense, will the defense do anything new or special this year?

YI: The defense is going to be great this year. We had a lot of young guys last year. We only lost two seniors. We’re definitely going to be a lot better this year. We’re going to be a lot more aggressive, we’re going to come after the quarterback as well as create more turnovers. We’re going to be a better defense as a whole.

TT: What about the offense? How’s the offense going to be different?

HM: Our offense is going to be explosive this year. We’re going to help our defense out a lot. Last year, our defense was on the field way too long. They would get a great stop, then we would go three and out, and they would be back on the field. I feel this year our offense is going to be very explosive. We have a young quarterback, we lost a couple of quarterbacks last year due to injuries, but they’re healthy now, and we just brought in another quarterback from Florida, Chris Hart, who is a triple-threat athlete. We’re going to put some points on the scoreboard this year.

This will conclude this portion of the recruiting perspectives. My next installment will include Richmond and William & Mary.

As always feel free to send your comments to: CAATODAY@YAHOO.COM.

This is the CAA TODAY signing off.